The value of Gold continues to rise. A lot of investors are looking for ways to invest and one of the easiest and cheapest ways of buying Gold coins is via eBay. You can find thousands of Gold coins for sale on eBay at any one time.

You need to know how you can buy a gold coin for a fair price without being cheated. This short guide and the tools on this site will hopefully make this process easier.

Intrinsic value versus collectability value

Gold coins have intrinsic value rather than just value based on their collectability or rarity. This can give these coins significantly more value. However If you are a novice collector you should purchase a gold coin for its gold value before collecting them for their numismatic or rarity value. There are two reasons for this. Understanding the numismatic value of a coin involves knowledge of numismatics and expertise that may go beyond your current level. You will therefore be taking a greater risk purchasing something this expensive. Secondly estimating its value will be subjective, probably more so during times of crisis when your gold investments are so important.

Professional Coin Grading Services

A way to avoid buying fake gold coins is to buy only professionally graded or “slabbed” coins. Those are coins in plastic capsules (slabs) that have been graded and authenticated by such services as PCGS or NGC or some others. They usually cost a bit more than not slabbed ones, but they guarantee authentication and that’s worth it

If you are a novice stay away from less reputable coin grading services and use the following graders listed below:

It helps when buying and selling coins for them to be in good condition (not cleaned or modified in any way). For a novice, I realize, it is difficult to determine via pictures alone if the coin was cleaned or not.

Which denomination should I purchase?

The denomination of the coin can alter the price significantly. As a rough guide most 20th Centry US $20 gold coins will cost you over $1,000 each, $10 gold coins about half that, $5 Gold coins $300 or so and $2.5 roughly half that. It is a good idea to start slow and select some $5 Gold coins to bid on first. But if your goal is to invest in Gold, try to move on to the $10 and $20 coins soon since the $5’s and $2.5’s are more difficult to get good deals on.

How Do I Know If The Asking Price Is Reasonable?

Before you bid you need to have a reasonable idea of what the price of Gold is. Kitco.com provides a historic graph for the price of gold.

Use PCGS to find out the collectable value for the coin you want to bid on. PCGS has an online price guide for all US Gold coins. Scroll down and under the Gold Coins category, select the correct denomination and date range link. PCGS lists the current pricing for coins they have graded, which means they may be on the higher side, but the list is a good starting point for figuring out how much to bid.

This is where you make or lose money on your investment. Once you find a coin that looks in good condition use websites mentioned above. Determine if the current auction price is a good value. Ideally you don’t want to pay more than 30% or so above the Gold value of the coin. At the time of writing this it is $1140/ounce; a $5 pre-1933 US Gold coin would be $285). Thus, a $5 pre-1933 US Gold coin with a premium of 30% would run around $370

Fake gold coins sold on eBay can be a problem. One has only pictures of the coins for sale and, unless one is an expert, it is difficult to establish the authenticity of the coin being sold. There are some guiding principles here one can follow to reduce the chances of buying a fake gold coin on ebay.

Buy only from a power seller.

Check the feedback of the seller.

Check to ensure the seller does not change the category of the item the day before the sale ends. (This is a favorite trick to stymie coin dealers who can tell if the coin is fake. Also prevents eBay from acting upon complaints)

Ensure the seller is contactable and you can and should ask a question to see if they respond and what their response is.

Is there a return policy?

Any guarantee of authenticity?

Check the online coin discussion groups. Usually there are warnings or discussion regarding the coins for sale and which are fake and which are not.

These are very important points and it would be wise not to ignore them.

Some people actually collect fake and counterfeit coins. Some counterfeit coins have a particular history or educational value. These are usually called ‘black cabinet’ or ‘black museum’ collections. Again, these coins are for the specialist.

Despite the above, the incidence of fake or counterfeit gold coins is not large. Provided one takes sensible precautions one can usually safely purchase one’s favorite gold coins from a reputable dealer either online or from the shop in the high street.

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